Star tweak

“Astro-architect” Neeta Sinha tells the rich and famous how small changes in their homes can improve their fortunes. Indulekha Aravind is sceptical but curious.

In India even the educated and well-read are devout believers in horoscopes, astrologers and the like. Real-estate developers market projects as “vaastu-compliant” and the most expensive house, built by the richest Indian (“Antilla”, Mukesh Ambani’s 27-storey home in Mumbai), reportedly conforms to the Vaastu Shastra.

Small wonder that Neeta Sinha, Mumbai-based “astro-architect”, has a ready clientele.

“Astro-architecture” is a term Sinha has coined for her work, which she says combines astrology with architecture. According to her, every house has a horoscope and the negative areas need to be set right so that everything can be hunky-dory.

 

“If you divide what I do into four parts,” she says, “up to a third is science, and those calculations I arrive at would be the same you would come to using any book on astronomy. The rest — what I balance and predict — is based on intuition.” She says she has worked as an astro-architect for over 25 years.

Her USP is in the solutions she offers, which do not involve knocking down walls or adding rooms. Instead, she claims that by using mirrors, plants and colours, she can turn things around. “Just two or three small things and you will be set,” says the soft-spoken lady, adding a string of fat pearls to her pale yellow ensemble.

You may reserve judgement, but according to Sinha, others were convinced, including Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Anil Ambani. “I went to Amitabh Bachchan in 1998, during his rough patch, and suggested changing the name of his house from ‘Mansa’ to ‘Jalsa’. He was sceptical but the week after the renaming, he received the offer to host Kaun Banega Crorepati, which bailed him out,” says Sinha.

It was she who suggested the name “Mannat” for Shah Rukh Khan’s house, Sinha says, adding that she has been consulted by Anil and Tina Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla and the Reddys of the GVK group. One sceptic-turned-client, she says, was hotelier Arun Saraf, who co-owns several properties with the Hyatt group.

Saraf, she says, approached Sinha at his wife’s insistence. “The first thing he told me was that he didn’t believe in my science but that because it was a science he would respect it and incorporate my suggestions.” He was so satisfied with the result, she says, that he told her that he does not want to think about how it works but that since it does, he wanted her to look after all his upcoming projects, too.

Sinha’s claims could not be verified with these celebrities and entrepreneurs.

Sinha herself did not at first believe in vaastu or in astrology. She became a convert after her neighbour, a “cosmic researcher” who became her guru, accurately predicted three changes that would take place in her life within the span of a week. The fascinated housewife then, in collaboration with her guru, researched the subject and launched herself as an astro-architect.

“The untimely demise of my guru,” she says, “led to all his clients landing in my lap.” Now, her husband handles the business side and her daughter takes care of her clients in Delhi. Her son makes advertising and corporate films.

To get a sense of how she works, I sketch a rough plan of the apartment I share with my friends and ask the astro-architect for her verdict. She asks for my full name, the names on the lease and the direction in which the flat faces. Then she tells me that one of us has a skin or dust allergy, that we have a lot of expenses and that one particular wall leaks.

She’s right about all three. Delhi is of course an expensive city, with poorly built flats, and possibly a breeding ground for all kinds of allergies. Yet, while I am still as unlikely to I consult an astrologer or astro-architect before taking any important decisions, Sinha has left me a tad disconcerted.